Knowledge is More Powerful than the Sword
by Luthair Paendrag
Summary: On a trip to the Digital World, the Digidestined find themselves facing the true darkness of the Dark Ocean, an old enemy and the armies of the Digimon Emperor. Set during the fight against the Digimon Emperor. Reviews always appreciated.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon. If I did then all the series would have the characters from 01 and 02 and Takari would exist. Although now that you mention it, I wonder how much it would be worth?

Prologue

The wind topped over the mountain before falling down onto the plain below. Upon the plain were hundreds of control spires, each exactly one-hundred metres away from any other one. And in the centre of the plain lay what seemed like a small mountain, dwarfing the black obelisks that were lined up around it. But if the control spires didn't give away the fact that perhaps this mountain had another purpose, then the metal and glass viewing area mounted half-way up this small mountain would have set off alarm bells. This was the fortress of the Digimon Emperor, and while for the moment the fortress may have been grounded, in no way were the acts of evil that made their home in this place at all diminished. Inside the Emperor had just retired from watching a battle in his custom made arena and returned to the control room, where to his great and constant annoyance and disgust, Wormmon was waiting for him.

"Ken.." Wormmon started before being kicked aside as the Emperor made his way to a computer terminal where he began punching in code.

"I TOLD YOU NEVER TO CALL ME KEN!!" he shouted as Wormmon scurried into one of the many dark corners of the control room. "My name is the Digimon Emperor," he said regaining his composure before returning his attention to the computer terminal. As he punched the buttons on the screen appeared a map of the Digital World. Much of the land was covered in black, and his forces were advancing faster with every passing day. Ever since he had left his idiot parents and the rest of that pathetic world his advances had become astronomical. However, right in the middle of the screen, surrounded on all sides by darkness was a single white square.

"Wormmon, what is that?" Wormmon scurried out of his corner and took a look at the screen.

"Is it a speck of dust Master?" The Emperor ran his hand over the map, but no, the single stain of white in a sea of black remained.

"Why is that area not under my control?"

"I don't know what that is Master. Perhaps you just missed a spot. You know how much one piece of wilderness looks the same as another; you must just have overlooked it"

"Well not any more. The digimon there may have received a few extra weeks from my oversight, but by the end of week they will be under my dominion."

"But if we turn around and go back, then you'd lose all the momentum you've been building up over the last month. And then you'll blame me."

"But I'm not heading back, Wormmon, you are."

"You want me to subdue the area for you master? By myself?" Wormmon's heart was filling with pride. Was Ken finally beginning to treat him well again?

"By yourself? Oh God no. You couldn't subdue a wet puppy. No, but I'll send you to watch over those I send there. Any other of my servants might be freed by those kids, but you… you are loyal. Pathetic, but you'd never turn against me. No, I'll send in the brawn, and you'll have to do is ensure they don't fail. With the forces I'm sending there, not even you could mess this up."

"Umm… Thankyou Master, I think"

"Now get of my sight and leave, and don't come back until the job is done"

"I won't fail you Ken"

"MY NAME IS NOT KEN!! I AM NOT KEN!! I AM NOW AND FOREVER THE DIGIMON EMPEROR!!" He pulled out his whip and cracked it right over Wormmon's head, causing him to flinch. He ran off towards the corridor.

"Why do I do this," he thought to himself, "where's the Ken I used to know?"

As Wormmon scurried off, the Emperor sat upon his throne and pulled the key board towards him. Finally he could get rid of that weakling for awhile. While he thought he cared nothing for Wormmon, there remained a tiny piece in his mind that worried. Why had the area not been conquered? What had he sent Wormmon into? Would he be okay? These thoughts flooded his mind, and for a second his entire head was wracked with pain.

"W..Wormmon….S..Sam" he gasped, tears or pain and loss welling in his eyes. But then the seizure left, as quickly as it begun, and hatred replaced tears once again. He cared nothing for his parents, for anyone he had ever met at school, he cared nothing for Wormmon, and he cared nothing for the idol who had used to be his brother. He returned to computer and brought up a screen of digimon. Some were to be sent to whatever god-awful peace of wilderness he had missed, others were for his ultimate project. He began typing in lines of code, working once again on what would be his greatest creation.

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Meanwhile, back in the real world, it was unusually quiet on the small island of Odaiba in Tokyo Bay. Gone were the cars and trucks and taxis that usually travelled during the night. Instead, only darkness and silence. The roads were so devoid of traffic that the two pedestrians were able to walk down the middle of the road. The first of the two was quite clearly a teenage boy, even though he wore a cloak and hood. His face was devoid of acne, thanks to the conditions back home, though he did wear glasses. He was using them to stare at the map which had been handed to him by his partner. His partner was much more likely to have drawn glances in public, which is why he was likewise covered in a cloak. However had the cloak had been thrown off, one would have seen a creature that looked just like one of the raptors from _Jurassic Park_, except that he was the size of a horse, and that instead of a left arm he carried a metal arm ending in a stained claw. No one ever asked what the stains were from.

"Well, if we came out here, then we took a right at that corner, then… aww screw it, I knew I should have learnt how to read the map." Said the first stranger, for that is what they obviously were. He looked down at the digivice that he held in his palm. Ever since the Emperor had come along, the digiports kept opening in the wrong places. Instead of the computer lab at Odaiba Elementary that Izzy had recommended to him, the pair had arrived unceremoniously in the office of an editor at the Fuji TV Station Building. Well, he thought to himself, at least no one was there. His thoughts wandered back to the last time he and his companion had tried to journey from the Digital World to Australia. He shuddered.

"Umm… Will? I think the map's upside down" noted the second as he peered across at the map.

"Is it? Damn" replied Will as he turned the map over, "Thanks Raptoramon… Hey, a stroke of luck! We're already here." He pointed over to the apartment building nearby, "it's much easier to find your way during the day. Okay, so we're here and we're safe. I told you nothing bad would happen. Time for you to get small Raptoramon." There was a flash of light and where Raptoramon had been standing was instead a small grey ball with Koromon's ear's but a row of very sharp teeth, the size of a man's head. Of course, even if someone had noticed the flash of light they wouldn't have seen anything other than the black cloak which had now fallen on the ball.

"Okay Boramon, let's go" said Will as he folded up the unused cloak, put it way in his backpack and picked up Boramon. They took the elevator up and finally they reached a door. Will pressed the intercom and in his best womanly voice said,

"Izzy, it's me Mom, I'm Home"

Surprisingly the door swung open and Will noticed that Izzy must have rigged the door to open by remote control. All that walking to and from his room would have taken quite the toll. He placed Boramon on the table and walked into Izzy's room, where, as always, he was at the computer.

"Mom what are you doing barging in? I could have had a girl over…" Izzy turned around, noticed it wasn't his mom he had let into the house, but instead a person in a black cloak and shouted before realising who it was. "Oh it's just you, God, Will, you frightened the hell out of me."

"That was the plan," said Will gleefully, before adopting a slightly more mocking tone, "And just for the record, I don't know what's more interesting; the fact that I can impersonate your mother or that your mother would ever believe you could have a girl in your house let alone in your room."

"Hey, it's not out of the realm of possibility that I could have a girl over."

"E-mailing a member of the opposite sex, as I said last time, has never and will never constitute having a girl over Izzy"

"And I suppose you're more suave than me"

"Hell no. I just enjoy witty banter with such an intellectual. And of course by banter I mean insults"

"Well something tells me that you didn't come all the way from the Digital World just for banter and gossip."

"I'm hurt Izzy. I thought we were friends. I even give you that Motomiya kid's diary that you asked for, granted it was pretty easy stealing it off his computer from the Library, but doesn't that give me the benefit of at least some small talk?"

"Will, firstly, the journal's not for me it's for Tai. Secondly, you turned up at my apartment in the middle of the night impersonating my mother." Will shrugged, "I think I deserve an explanation."

"Oh, right. Sorry about the whole midnight thing. We just got a new cook back home, some disturbed Redvegiemon who sounds suspiciously like Jack Nicholson. Unfortunately his cooking nearly killed me, and seeing as this was the only digiport open, I decided I'd get some supplies from here. And maybe while I'm here I'd take a little vacation in Tokyo."

"This doesn't explain why you turn up at my place in the middle of the night."

"Oh, right. I need to go to the bank tomorrow morning to get the money for supplies. I was wondering if you could look after Boramon for a few hours."

"Why would you have a bank account? You live in the Digital World."

"It's not mine per se so much as the Library's. But seeing as I'm the only human that lives there, It's pretty much mine."

"But how did you get the money in the first…You know, I'm not going to ask. Just a few hours?"

"That's the plan." Will answered, "Tomorrow's Sunday, so I can pick him up at midday at the latest."

"I don't know," Izzy hesitated, "the last time I did you a favour I think I broke a federal law."

"Izzy," Will looked into Izzy's eyes, "we've both read that journal, and I think for the laughter that it must have brought to you I deserve this much"

"Fine"

Will reached out to shake Izzy's hand and his sleeve hitched up just a bit, but just enough to see the Crest of Knowledge branded on his skin just below his wrist. Izzy stared at it just for a moment.

"I work in the Library. What else do you think I'd have branded on me?" Will deadpanned. "Good, well, I'll be off. Seeya Boramon." And like that he was on his way out.

"Poor kid," mused Izzy, "I wonder if he knows black cloaks went out of fashion centuries ago?"


	2. A Day with the Digidestined

Disclaimer: Nothing. I own nothing. Al I have in life is a laptop and an internet connection so I can post my stories.

Author's Note: On a serious note, I would like to apologise to any discrepancies that I have made in my own portrayal of Shinto religion in this chapter and the actual religion. In no way is my description supposed to be accurate, although all the places mentioned are. If anyone is offended by my portrayal of the Shinto religion, please leave a review o message me to that extent. On a slightly more personal note, this chapter has sapped me of my soul. It has been the better part of two months in the typing. I can see the whole story in my head, and I honestly don't care if it's hated. IT'S FINALLY FINSIHED!

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It was dawn on Monday. A day had passed since Izzy's unexpected visitor and normality and traffic had returned to the streets of Odaiba. Today was a public holiday, so the streets were filled with people; bustling this way and that, to make this appointment or meet up with that family member. But despite there being no school, the Digimon Emperor never slept so the digidestined had decided to meet at school at the normal time to continue the fight. Until then, however, the day was theirs.

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Far from the streets of Odaiba, rising up from the ground in central Tokyo sat the Tokyo Tower. From the tower's observation deck the entirety of area could be seen; including on a good day far off Mt Fuji. It was for these panoramic and extremely photogenic reasons that brought Kari Kamiya and her partner Gatomon to the tower early in the morning. Kari warmed her hands on a cup of coffee before taking out and preparing her ever present digital camera. It was just her luck that she had forgotten about her Media Class project. She would have been there earlier if a certain someone hadn't caught the smell of the Tsukigi Fish Markets while they were at the subway station. Not only had she missed the sunrise, but now she smelt of fish.

There were very few people up on the observation deck that morning, just her, a security guard standing next to the elevator and a strange kid who seemed to be talking to his backpack. After the kid had left, Gatomon was finally able to talk with her partner, jumping up onto the railing so that she was at eye level with Kari. Kari, however, was too busy to speak with her partner as she tried in vain to frame the Roppongi Towers without any glare. Unsuccessful, she was about to give up, when she turned around and saw before her the ocean. It had only been a few weeks ago that she had found herself surrounded by the darkness; lapping at her, threatening to overwhelm and drown her, just as those, 'things' had threatened to drag her into the Ocean of that world. Just looking out into Tokyo Bay was enough to send her mind back to that day. She shuddered and tried to push those memories to the back of her mind.

"Kari? Kari!" Gatomon was nearly yelling at her now.

"Oh… what? Oh, sorry Gatomon. I sort of spaced out there for a moment" Now that her mind had fallen back to that day, she wouldn't be able to concentrate properly for at least half an hour; her mind was filled to brim with conflicting thoughts.

She went over to one of the tables on the observation deck and started on her midmorning snack. She pulled out a fish wrapped in foil for Gatomon.

"You know Gatomon," she said slyly; her hand and the fish moving over the rubbish bin next to the table, "you really don't deserve this"  
"Why not?" replied Gatomon innocently, although in her mind she was wondering if she jumped now could she snatch the fish, or whether she would just have to rip Kari's arm off.

"Because," she was dangling the fish over the bin now, "you cost me my allowance for the next three weeks with that fish you ate."

"How was I supposed to know that you had to buy it? If they put a fish out there in the open then they're just looking for trouble, aren't they?"

"It was a market, Gatomon. You're supposed to pay for everything"

"Then I'll just borrow the money off you next time. OK?" answered Gatomon before pouncing, grabbing the fish from Kari's outstretched hand, pulling off the foil and swallowing the fish whole before hitting the ground.

Kari just stared for a silent several moments as Gatomon licked her claws and tossed the foil into the bin before giggling at her partner's supernatural feat.

"Fine, if you want it that much, you can have it" she giggled before putting her lunch back and picking her camera up once more. She put to the back of her mind any thought of the past and concentrated once more on her assignment. She had to be at the school in a few hours and she was going to finish this damned project even if it killed her.

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From the Tokyo Tower where we found our first digidestined, one would be able to spy the Meiji Temple Complex; an enormous, sprawling parkland, with prayer gates ten men tall at all the entrances. And in the centre, the temple itself, dedicated to the souls of the Emperor Meiji and his Empress Shoken. It was one the grandest temples in Tokyo, and it was for that reason that the Hida family had made a visit to the shrine, to pay respect to Hiroki, Cody's father. Cody was usually a solemn child, but this day he was even more solemn than usual, his entire family was. Hiroki had been a good father, a good son and a good husband, and to have had him so cruelly taken from had plunged the family into despair. It was most likely his father's death that had made Cody such a quiet kid, but it had been his grandfather's urging that he was now wearing a black suit. It was important to honour the dead and one's family he had been taught, and so, for this day he had left Upamon with Yolei and had come with his family to the shrine.

While Cody was in his suit, both his mother and grandfather were wearing more traditional clothes. Cody's grandfather had wanted him to wear the traditional robes, but his mum thought that he looked much nicer in the suit. As they made their way along the wide, gravel path that wound through the forest in the middle of Tokyo to the Temple proper, they walked beneath the prayer gates that towered above them. Around the mammoth gates were a number of tourists; Japanese and Western alike.

"This is supposed to be a place of worship, not picture taking." Muttered Cody's grandfather. Cody turned his head to see a kid with a backpack taking a photo of the gate. 'He must be the same age as the other digidestined. I wonder what they're doing now' thought Cody before he pushed the thought back out. 'Not now Cody. You have more important things to think about now'

Having passed through the prayer gates, and now in the Temple proper the Hida family sat upon the tatami of the praying area, Chikara Hida tossing a couple of coins into the boxes for good luck. Then he began the prayer that he and the family had used every time they had come to the Shrine.

"We come here today to honour the souls of our ancestors. Of Hiroki, who died to save another; that he may receive the greatest rewards in death for the great and honourable sacrifice that he made. We also pray for our granddaughter, daughter and sister Aiko, who was so cruelly taken from us before we ever knew her." Cody's grandfather fell silent at these words and bowed his head to the ground in prayer. The times when the family attended the temple were one of the only times that Aiko was mentioned. When Hiroki had died, Cody's mother had been 7 months pregnant, and the grief of her husband's death had caused her to go into labour early. Aiko had only lived long enough to be blessed and named in Shinto tradition before dying only two days after Hiroki's death. The only other time that Aiko was brought to their minds was on her birthday, when, even if they did not mention her name, they were all thinking about the smallest member of the family over a birthday feast.

After several minutes of silent prayer, Chikara stood back up, and the rest of the family followed. It would take a while to get back home to Odaiba, and for Cody, it would feel much longer for the thoughts that now plagued his head. He had lost a father before he could really know him, and lost a sister before he knew her at all. Until he had met Upamon, it had been these two tragedies that had always bore down upon him, even if he didn't show it. But now, he had a bigger purpose, he had grown up because of his new friend; he had had to with the fate of the Digital World in the balance. The tragedies of the past would not weigh him down. A lot of thoughts were in his head, but it was a long trip home, he had all the time in the world to mull them over.

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Once again we cross Japan's capital to Kitanomaru Park. Traditionally part of the Imperial Palace, the park is situated right in the middle of the most affluent area of Tokyo. Surrounded on one side by the Imperial Palace proper, the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art on the other, it was here in the early afternoon that many loving couples would picnic by the lake, enjoying each other's company or making the occasional marriage proposal. Davis Motomiya did not fit into either of these categories. He would by some be defined as lovesick, by most as obsessive, and by a few as a stalker. He and Demiveemon had spent the morning following Kari and Gatomon as they made their way towards Tokyo Tower. Davis had then lost them as Gatomon had made a run for the Fish Market. Cursing himself, he'd made a wild guess that she was going to the photography exhibit at the Museum. Now he was broke from buying tickets to the Museum, depressed over having lost the love of his life and pushed to the mental edge by Demiveemon's incessant 'Knock Knock' jokes.

"Davis?"

Davis' eyelid witched, fearing another 'Knock Knock' joke. "Yeah?"

"Are we still looking for Kari and Gatomon?"

"Yep"

"But it's been hours and my feet hurt and I'm hungry and..."

"Demiveemon. How many times do I have to tell you? Love is more important than food."

"You're only saying that because you got to eat breakfast this morning. I got zip."

"Demiveemon?"

"Yes Davis?"

"You don't want to be a failure, do you?"

"Ummm. I don't think anyone actually wants to be a failure"

"A laughing stock?"

"No"

"Then we're going to find Kari. I have no money left so we aint going home until we find her"

"What exactly are you going to do once we find her and Gatomon Davis?"

This question caught Davis off guard. He had planned this so well. He had tailed Kari and Gatomon to the subway station. He'd disguised himself with a fedora and trench coat, received strange stares from passers-by for her, and he didn't actually have a plan of what to do once he actually tracked her to her destination.

'Right,' he thought to himself, 'think of something Davis. You're supposed to be the leader of the digidestined, don't let Demiveemon down, don't…GOT IT'

"Demiveemon, we're following Kari because it's our job to make sure nothing happens to her. Someone has to protect her, and as I don't see T.H. here, it's up to you and me."

"Perhaps we just don't see T.K. here because he's actually with Kari and Kari's not here either" replied Demiveemon innocently. Davis had to fight temptation to throw his partner into the lake.

By this time they were passing a small café on the way back to the subway. He may not have any money on him, but the cards Davis had been dealt in life meant that he was very adept at begging. As he passed the café, a kid lifted his head from a book staring at Davis for a second before laughing, placing his book next to the backpack next to his chair and returning to his coffee.

'AHHH,' screamed Davis mentally, 'Why is the world laughing at me? What did I do to deserve this?' He had half a mind to punch the teenager in the face, but for once felt it was best not to. It was going to be a long time before he reached home, and he wanted to beat Kari back so that no one was suspicious. Not that there was anything to be suspicious of in the end.

"Right Demiveemon. I've got a plan to get us home. All you need to do is dance for money…" and so it was that Davis picked up Demiveemon, placed him on his head and began to explain his latest plan to get him home. The teenager left the park with his partner, leaving the happy couples to their own devices. There was always tomorrow to get Kari's attention he ruefully thought to himself. He may have not have gotten her today, but at least T.C hadn't either, had he. Had he?

"Faster Demiveemon, FASTER" he yelled, scaring several pedestrians. If that T.O had gotten his hands on his Kari…the pace picked up substantially as a boy and his lizard thing began to busk and beg their way across Tokyo.

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And now at last we return to Odaiba. What had once been home to the defences against Commodore Perry and his Black Ships had now become the home to the defenders of the Digital World. Unsurprisingly, it was an irony that not even Izzy had noticed yet. In the middle of the island lay the apartment block that housed the Hida, Takaishi and Inoue families. And in a small corner of the apartment block lay the Inoue family store. And inside the store a very bored and perhaps by this stage of the day a tad homicidal Yolei Inoue.

"Poromon?" cried a plainly frustrated Yolei. "Upamon?"

"Ready" chorused twin voices from down the other end of the shop

"Right….. GO!"

Nothing could be seen for a few seconds but if one listened closely you could hear the pattering of…And then coming from the back of the shop, rushing down the aisle, bouncing as fast as their limbs? could carry them came Upamon and Poromon, moving so fast that they seemed possessed.

"I'm winning, I'm winning!" cried Poromon before Upamon smashed into his side, sending him flying into the pre-packaged meat section.

"Not in this world bird-boy" shouted Upamon before triumphantly jumping into a laughing Yolei's arms.

"And the winner is Upamon," shouted Yolei to no one in particular as Poromon disentangled himself from the shrink wrapped chicken that was now leaking…something. "To the winner goes the spoils," said Yolei before handing Upamon some bars of chocolate which he consumed with sickening speed.

Now would probably be a good time to describe the small convenience store's current state. War zone. While everyone else was off for the day. Yolei got stuck in the shop. To make matters worse, no one, not a single person had entered the shop in the entire day. The only way she'd manage to keep her sanity for the last six hours had been through putting the two digimon in her care through competitions for chocolate. But now with the shop completely trashed, partly from the gladiator style fight she'd set up earlier, partly from the consequences of the drug like high that sugar seemed to bestow upon the two tiny balls of fur. Sighing at the complete destruction for her family's shop for her own perverse pleasure, Yolei returned to the counter and opened her seventh box of Pocky in two hours. God, it was soo boring here. Hell, she could be out doing stuff right now but noooo, she got stuck watching the shop. A part of her felt alone, abandoned by her parents and her friends, left in a dead end job. Other girls her age got to spend their free days with friends and better yet, boys. But what did she get? Nothing except for waiting for Davis and a sharp increase in her blood pressure. Why couldn't there be someone for her? She spent her spare time saving the world; she deserved at least a half decent boyfriend, free blood pressure medication to deal with Davis, something. She knew her thoughts were petty, but after spending the day watching Poromon and Upamon squabbling over chocolate bars, she honestly didn't care. Then her thoughts returned to the shop. She pushed out of her head for a moment what would happen when her parents saw the shop. She was idly wondering how she could blame the state of the shop on Davis when Poromon broke her out of her thoughts.

"Yolei, Yolei" shouted the small bird thing

"What?" replied Yolei, spraying more Pocky across the floor and onto her two digimon charges.

"Cus…cus…cus"

"Spit It Out!" She was getting angry now. All the frustration that had built up inside her during the day was beginning to erupt.

"CUSTOMER!!!"

The following few seconds involved Yolei grabbing Upamon and Poromon, throwing them behind the counter and her running to the door in a superhuman effort as the customer entered the shop. He must have been the same age as her. He had a backpack slung across one shoulder, but it was his skin that made it obvious that he was a tourist. 'Oh God,' thought Yolei to herself, trying to think back to her English classes at school. She said the first thing that came into head, cursing herself for sleeping through English.

The boy looked at her puzzled for a moment before responding in fluent but accented Japanese,

"It's probably easier if we just talk in Japanese"

Relief washed over Yolei. She had memories of the last time she had tried to communicate with and English speaking customer. It had not been a success.

"Is it really that bad?" she asked

"Well, you did ask me when the next train leaves the station, but I've heard worse"

"Anyway," Yolei wasn't going to embarrass herself anymore in front of this boy, "Welcome to the Inoue Convenience Store. With what can I help you today?"

The stranger thought for a moment. "If I had to survive off something for an indefinite amount of time and had no cooking skills, what would you recommend?"

Yolei looked around the shop, most of the food scattered across the floor. "Instant Noodles" she replied with great certainty. She couldn't cook if her life depended on it, and those instant noodles had saved her bacon more than once. "But, ahhhh, as you can see, they're sort of scattered around. How many do you need?"

"How many do you have?" asked the boy, before bending over and starting to collect the least damaged packets of noodles. "I suppose it would be too much to ask for a giant sack of rice, would it? I can boil rice pretty well."

"Actually, we have some in the back. One of the people in the apartment building has agoraphobia, so we ship the food to her in bulk. I'll go grab one." By the time Yolei had returned from the back of the store lugging a giant sack of rice along with her, she discovered that her customer was trying to tidy up the store.

"You don't need to do that" said Yolei before tripping over a frozen chicken and falling flat on her face. The boy helped her up.

"Nonsense. I'd feel horrible if I left you to clear up all by yourself" he replied as he pulled her up by the arm.

"Oh. Thanks. That's very generous of you"

"Not generosity, just a an overreacting conscience"

Yolei stared at him for a few seconds puzzled.

"Hmmmm. I think it loses something in the translation. By the way, my name's Will"

"Yolei" she replied, shaking the hand he offered.

Never underestimate the damage that sugar fuelled digimon can achieve. It still took the two an hour to clear up the store a level that health officials would deem suitable for human habitation. Of course, the fact that they spent most of the hour talking and blushing whenever they looked at each other didn't help at all.

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And then there was one. One digidestined left to visit. Five storeys above and about ten metres down a corridor lay our last digidestined, asleep. Sure, they were supposed to meet at 3:30 that afternoon, but in T.K's mind, that gave him until at least 2:45, 3:15 at the most to sleep. And that is what he had done. Having gotten Patamon watching a cartoon marathon on the television after his mum had left for work, T.K had barred the door to his room with a chair and fallen asleep. His room was not unlike the Inoue Store, as both could readily be described as war zones, but no light spied upon his dark domain, strewn with magazines, school book and hats.

When he had finally been woken up by Patamon's cries; the marathon had been replaced by infomercials and he couldn't operate the remote. T.K got dressed before staggering out into the daylight with Patamon on his head. Half blinded, T.K slowly and painfully made his way to Yolei's convenience store, swearing that if this is what happened after sleeping too long that he would never drink alcohol in his life. He arrived at the convenience store, almost back to his cheery, normal self, just in time to see someone emerge from the store backpack slung across shoulders, plastic bags hanging off his arms which were holding a large sack of rice. T.K managed to hear from his ramblings in English as he passed.

"…Stupid Izzy…closes down the port…prettiest girl in Tokyo…"

T.K was surprised to hear the word 'Izzy', but as he entered, it quickly left his mind. The shop was still untidy, but nowhere near as bad as it had been earlier. It was going to be much easier to blame this one on Davis. Yolei however was standing at the counter, face red, clutching a small piece of paper like it was made of diamond encrusted gold leaf. She didn't seem to notice that he was there.

"Yolei? Yoleeeiiii? What have you got there in your hand?" Suddenly she broke out of her silence, a huge grin plastered over her face. Then she saw T.K, blushed red again and shoved the paper into her pocket.

"What? Oh…ummmm, nothing." She smiled sheepishly, then shouted out, "Nothing but the phone number and e-mail address of the man I'm going to marry!"

"I thought you were going to marry Ken?" laughed T.K as he pulled himself up from the ground. As it turned out, Yolei's screaming was enough to knock him and a stand of tuna cans onto the ground.

"Yeah, but he turned out to be a megalomaniacal psychopath, didn't he? But not this one. He's smart, cute, kind. Perfect boyfriend material. And I've got his number!"

"So what's his name?"

"It's…oh dear."

T.K simply sighed.

"Don't you sigh at me. I'll remember it."

But Yolei wasn't given an opportunity to remember, because at that very moment a blur broke through the door, tackling T.K to the ground and screaming at him almost incomprehensibly.

"Right, where is she T.U? I know you've got her somewhere, so hand her over."

There was only one person in the world who could stuff up such a simple name. I mean for God's sakes, only two letters!

"Hey Davis" T.K said wearily, wondering if it was really worth waking up this morning after all.

"Don't you 'Hey' me. I know you're hiding her somewhere, so tell me now"

"What the hell are you talking about Davis?"

"Kari of course. You've stolen her from me. Now give her back. She's my princess"

Yolei butted in now

"Oh, right. I forgot. Kari's going to finish her media project today. She told me to tell you that she'll meet us at the school."

Davis just sweatdropped and T.K dusted himself as if nothing odd had actually happened. He'd almost gotten used to the constant berating and beatings from Davis and the occasional insinuation from Yolei regarding him and Kari. Sure, they were closer than most friends, but they hadn't been through what others normally would. Other kids, not even the other digidestined were not there at the top of Spiral Mountain being chased by Piedmon. Other kids hadn't been stripped down to data and lived to tell the tale, had they? T.K thought back to after they had defeated Apocylamon, that night in the woods (See my other work, A Dance in the Woods. Shameless cross promotion I know). In his mind, he had every right to be close with Kari. But one thing still worried him. "I care too much about you." Had he really said that? (His Master's Voice, just for those of you not well versed in Season Two lore) He had always been Kari's best friend, ever since their first adventure to the digital world. Afterwards, even though he'd lived on the other sides of the city, they'd exchanged e-mails, phone calls and see each other whenever he'd visited his brother. They'd told each other everything. T.K, his fears about his parent's divorce and Kari her own fears of her mum's cooking. Of course he cared about her, but now even he was questioning if there was something more. All he knew no was that he didn't want to lose Kari.

When T.K snapped out of his thoughts, he was a bit surprised to find himself halfway to the school with Cody alongside him, Yolei and Davis. He sighed to himself. He'd have to do something about this one day. The walk to the school was relatively uneventful. Davis was ranting about how he was so much faster than T.K at track, before falling silent when he saw Kari waiting for them near the school gate, which should have been closed seeing as it was a school holiday. Cody was the first to notice the open gate.

"Was the gate open when you got here, Kari?" he asked in his typical quiet voice.

"Yeah. I thought that was weird. What does it mean, do you think?"

"Maybe Izzy's using the computer room." suggested T.K

"Or Maybe Ken's there waiting to sneak attack us" suggested Davis, trying to one up T.K

"Well," concluded Yolei, whose blood pressure was starting to rise thanks to Davis, "Maybe we should find out."

So the group snuck into the school unseen, it was technically trespassing after all, and made their way towards the computer room. They were making their way up the main staircase when suddenly, Gatomon, who was at the front of the group, stuck up her paw in the air to stop everyone.

"SHHHHH," she said, ears twitching, trying to pick whatever she had sensed up, "I can hear something"

"I can't hear anything" piped Demiveemon before…

"YOU DID WHAT?"

"Oh, that. I can hear that" muttered Demiveemon to no one in particular as the group inched their way sneakily towards the computer room, from where the disturbance seemed to be coming. They were only a few metres from the door when the voices within began again.

"Okay, okay. Now please explain this again from the start Izzy. I really want to hear this."

"Only once you put down the monitor."

"Fine. Now what is it you were going to say?"

"Well Will…"

"Will?" whispered Yolei to herself before Kari shushed her and returned her attention to the computer room.

"I was just tinkering with the portal, trying to get it to respond to my digivice. And…"

"And?"

"And I may have caused the portal to deteriorate"

"Well. It had three days on it at least. So what is it now?"

"According to the computer? Ten minutes."  
"TEN MINUTES?!" Another shout rocked the school.

"Now I understand that you'd be a tad upset Will. I mean, I know this was supposed to be your holiday and everything."

"Izzy," the voice was quiet now, "I was about to ask the prettiest girl I've ever met out to dinner. For a couple of days, I was going to live like a normal teenager. Well, relatively normal. I was going to do something else in my life except research for the Library. To be able to do something with my life. To talk with friends or go on a date or…I'm sorry Izzy, I'm rambling now, aren't I"

"It's okay Will. I know you're upset"

"Thanks Izzy. It's just, I want to do something with my life, life like a normal teenager for once. Ah well. I suppose it's time for you and me to go home, hey Boramon?"

"Yep" now a third voice entered the conversation. "But Will, aren't you supposed to give Izzy that stuff from Mimi"

"Oh Yeah, I nearly forgot. Mimi sent you another gift. Now don't you turn red on me Izzy. I was there when you professed your love to her in Central Park. Remember who brought you all the way to her doorstep?"

"I remember you stuffing up the co-ordinates and the digiport opening in California instead of New York."  
"And wasn't that the best road trip ever? Anyway, here's your letter and a box of her brownies. Ummmm, I may have eaten some of the brownies."

"You did WHAT?"

"And now it's my turn to leave in a hurry. C'mon Boramon, we've got to unpack all this food back home. Thanks again Izzy for looking after Boramon."

"You ate the brownies _she_ made for_ me_. I'm going to kill you"

"Ummmm. Bye Izzy" This last bit a said hurriedly and nervously, and before any of the digidestined hiding in the corridor could react, there was a blinding light that flooded the hallway. The group was stunned for a moment, and then jumped behind the stairs as Izzy, checking that there was no one there, made his way down the other end of the hall, clutching the box of brownies rather zealously to his chest.

"What was that about?" asked Davis as they entered the computer room. Cody rushed over to the monitor that housed the digiport and saw that a natural portal was indeed closing. This didn't trouble him because he knew that their D3's would keep the portal open. He pulled up a map of the Digital World and looked at where the portal had last been focussed.

"Hey guys" he called the others over.

"What is it Cody?" asked Kari as the others gathered around the computer.

"Look at the map." He replied. "This is where the last digiport opened up to." He stated, pointing at one of the regions of the Digital World. It was a single white square, surrounded by controlled regions.

"What does it mean?" asked Yolei.

"Maybe they have some sort of weapon that they use against the control spires?" suggested Kari

"Perhaps they're actually working for the Digimon Emperor and he's letting them free for all the work they've done for him"

"Davis," replied T.K, "if that kid was working for Ken, then why would he be friends with Izzy and Mimi?" Davis just silently twiddled his fingers.

"And what was this about Izzy and Mimi being a couple?" said Yolei in a whisper to Kari, both of them giggling.

"Well," started T.K, "We don't know why this region has no control spire, but there's got to be something special about it so we should probably check it out. Agreed?"

"Agreed" was the unison from the digidestined and their partners.

"Well then," said Davis, making his way to the computer, "DIGIPORT OPEN"

A flash of light, then oblivion.

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The T.V was situated on a small mound of dirt, the digidestined lying around it, pulling themselves up and rearranging their clothes. They were in a clearing, with trees about ten metres away from the T.V. Actually, it seemed almost like the clearing was a perfect circle, the type that a machine would ma…

"Freeze Intruders. If you move, we will shoot" this was followed by the sound of mechanic clanking as whatever guards guarded the T.V moved slowly towards them.

"We surrender"

"Thanks a lot Davis"  
"Yeah. Talk about the crest of courage"

The noise was getting louder.

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Please don't hold your breath waiting for the next chapter. It may be some time. Also, while you're all the way down here at the bottom, why don't you press that little review button and tell me how I could make it better. C'mon, I know that button's mighty tempting. Indulge yourself.


	3. Prisoners

Author's Note: While all the plot-lines I wanted to develop are here, I really want your opinion on whether I should edit it some more and add answers to those cliffhangers. Please tell me. In particular whether or not the dialogue near the end is any good.

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The trees shook, the ground rumbled and the digidestined clutched each other as ten, shadowy, blocky forms emerged from the trees. Gardromon, armed with rockets in place of fists moved into the clearing one step at a time, clunking and surrounding the digidestined. There was something unique about these Gardromon. Each of them was wearing black robes; emblazoned with silver towers and at their hips a sword capable of taking the head off a large gorilla.

"You will not resist or we shall fire" came the same monotonous tone from ten different directions, "You will not attempt to digivolve or we shall fire. You will follow us or we shall fire." By now the Gardromon had the group boxed in. Now they began to move in formation away from the clearing, forcing the digidestined to move with their captors or be crushed underfoot.

"Where are you taking us?" cried Yolei at one of the machines. No response.

"Who are you?" No response.

"Do you work for the Digimon Emperor?" Still no response.

Yolei started on a new tack. "Sooo, the strong silent type eh?" she said batting her eyelids at the robotic captor. Surprisingly, the Gardromon did not fall to her charms.

"Do you think that they're working for the Digimon Emperor?" whispered T.K to Kari as Yolei and disturbingly, Davis, tried to flirt any information at all out of the guards as they made their way through the forest.

"Well they don't have any dark rings" replied Kari

"But neither did the ones we found in Andromon's City." rebutted Cody, who entered the conversation after edging slowly from the other two, "Those ones were just reprogrammed"

"But that still doesn't explain the weird uniforms" wondered T.K.

Suddenly the procession came to abrupt halt. The Chosen Children sheltered their eyes from the sun as they came out of the woods and into the light once more. In front of them lay a cliff face, or at least what looked like a cliff face at first inspection. It wasn't until Davis looked up the cliff face and shouted I surprise that anyone else bothered to look up. It wasn't a cliff they were in front of, it was a tower. A gigantic minaret of gargantuan diameter was rising in front of their eyes, majestically spearing the clouds and continuing up into the sky. From what they could see the tower seemed to be made from white stone, glinting, shining and blinding in the sun. As the digidestined marvelled at the sheer enormity of the structure before of them, the Gardromon began moving again towards a cave entrance that wasn't there before. The cave led into a tunnel wide enough for one Gardromon or two children. The children moved in first and were surprised when the Gardromon procession didn't follow them in.

"You will continue down the tunnel or we shall fire. You will not stop or we shall fire."

"Yeah Yeah Yeah, and if we move too quickly you'll probably fire as well, won't you" continued a clearly frustrated Davis.

"Affirmative" replied the mechanic voice.

"Well then," started Yolei, clapping her hands together in an overly enthusiastic, cheery and obviously sarcastic way, "let's get moving."

The group started along the tunnel, Gatomon up front looking for anything that lay up ahead, Patamon up the back because he was claustrophobic.

"Look, shouted Kari after about a minute in the tunnel. It was starting to widen up. Soon, the tunnel opened into a cavern. Now, no matter how big the tower may have seemed, there was no way that a cavern that large could fit inside it. There was simply not enough time to take in the enormity of the cavern. Then there were the inhabitants. Literally thousands of digimon were scampering around the cavern, exiting from one tunnel into the cavern before somehow being able to find another tunnel despite the enormity of the cavern. Many were ones they had seen before in their adventures in the Digital World, others were completely unknown to the digidestined, but all of them wore the same the same type of robes. The colours were different, some in red, others in green, many in blue, and all with different patterns emblazoned on the robes. Some of the Digimon stopped what they were doing and started staring at the humans, with the humans staring back. There was a Frigimon bedecked in a red cloak, even an Ogremon in a blue robe. Kari and Yolei just stared at all the colours before another group of black clad digimon; this time a couple of Mekanorimon, some more Gardromon and two Hagurumon descended upon them and started forcing them into a tunnel off the main cavern. This new group was rather more dangerous looking. However, these new guards had gold, not silver towers emblazoned on their robes.

"Ooooooo, gold. I guess that makes you guys feel real important" shouted an indignant Davis as the new tunnel began to angle down, moss beginning to be seen on the ceiling and water occasionally dripping down onto the stone floor.

"So I guess we're not being taken to the visitor suites, are we?" questioned a sarcastic Yolei. Her entire day had gone downhill. The one high point from the day so far had been slightly marred by the fact that the boy she'd hooked was somehow connected to the Digital World. Now she was being dragged against her will into some dank dungeon where she would probably starve and die and then rot and…

"I didn't even get to go on a date" she whimpered. By now the tunnel must have been miles beneath the ground, yet every now and then when they passed a window in the rock wall; it seemed that they were actually moving up the tower. Suddenly they stopped and the Mekanorimon's extended arms stretched out, picked up the three boys and their digimon and hurled them bodily into the waiting cells, which had been prepared in advance for them. Then they started moving again, taking the girls with him and leaving the boys

"Let us out" shouted Davis, "Let us out you giant bucket of bolts."

"Davis," replied Cody in a frighteningly calm voice, "I think its best that we don't antagonise the gun wielding robots.

"Perhaps you're right" T.K now entered the conversation, "But we need to find a way out now. Who knows what they're going to do to the others"

"If they hurt a hair on my princess' head, I'll rip their…"

"Davis!"

"What is it Veemon? Have you found a way out?"

"No, but this moss is delicious." Everyone in earshot sweatdropped by reflex.

"Wh…Why would you tell me something like that at a time like this?" Davis just stared at the lizard with a mixture of disbelief and anger.

"Because I didn't get anything to eat this morning. Do you want some?"

Suddenly Davis' arms shot out and started throttling his partner. "How can you be thinking of food when Kari's in danger? Who knows what horrible things they could be doing to her?"

"Well," T.K mused to himself, "whatever's happening to the others. It can't be any worse than here."

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A single scream pierced the room where Kari and Yolei were being held. It was reminiscent of the lounge room of a very exclusive club, complete with what looked like a view of a city that looked like Tokyo, except that it had the Statue of Liberty and Sydney Harbour Bridge in the landscape as well. All in all, it was pretty good for what was supposed to be a prison cell. The girls' screams were focussed at what lay in the centre of the luxurious cell; a dining table filled to the brim with food. Chicken, steak, cakes and desserts were all there. Kari and Yolei just stared at the banquet that lay before them, before screaming again and descending upon it. Neither of them had had any lunch, and seeing as only a few moments torture had seemed to be on the table, a good meal was a more than perfect substitute.

They were just fighting over the wishbone of the chicken they had just devoured when they began to hear voices; voices that were coming nearer.

"There was two months worth of food. How could you possibly eat it all in under an hour?"

"I was hungry."  
"Raptoramon, that was my food. I'm the one who can't eat what that Redvegiemon who calls himself a chef cooks up, not you."

"Well you should have thought of that before you bought two months worth of beef flavoured noodles. You know they're my favourite."

"But…But…ahh forget it." The voices stopped outside the door. "Ummm, where are we?"

"Is your sense of direction that bad?"

"So sue me. I don't know the prison levels like the back of my hand. Why did the War Guild even call us down?"

"All I got out of the Gardromon was something about them being of potential interest to us"

"Are you sure that was the whole message, or were you staring at that Floramon librarian again when they rang and your mind was wandering?"  
"I knew I should have hidden my journal better"

"Answer the question."

"That was all he said"

"And where are these prisoners?"

"Behind that door"

"…So they've probably heard everything we've just said?"

"…Yep"

"So we're not going to appear particularly threatening to them now that they've heard that entire conversation, are we?

"Nope"

"Great. Just Great. Well, Raptoramon, would you like to do the honours?"

"Certainly" and with that the strange conversation ceased and the doors to Yolei and Kari's 'cell' burst open. Standing before them was large, dinosaur like creature, metal claw glinting. Like everybody else they had see so far, the strange dinosaur digimon was attired in a robe; one of forest green, emblazoned with gold towers.

"Do you know what kind of digimon that is?" whispered Yolei to Hawkmon as their new captor took a step into room, looing around and then staring at the food that was left on the table.

"That's Raptoramon," replied Hawkmon out of the side of his mouth, "They're a Dinosaur-Type Digimon, but I've never heard of one with a metal claw before" Raptoramon now took a step to the side to let his companion into the room, eyes still glued on the food on the table. Now a second person entered the room. Dressed in the same green robes as his companion, a boy walked into the room and looked straight at Yolei, genuine surprise flashing across his face.

"Will?" Surprised was an understatement, a small piece of chicken falling from Yolei's jaw. Every time she met a guy, they always turned out to be a megalomaniac or something else equally strange. Just her luck.

"He heh…" Will grimaced before smiling before waving back, "Hey Yolei" Now it was time for Kari's jaw to drop.

"Yolei? Have you two met?" Yolei looked at Kari with a mix of embarrassment and revulsion. For those of you wondering, the revulsion was due to the fact that Kari had also failed to swallow what was in her mouth before dropping her jaw.

"Oh. Right. I just met him today. He came into my family's store and bought some stuff."

"And you're on first name basis with all your one time customers?" Kari whispered with a smirk, just loud enough for Yolei to hear next her. Yolei blushed a deep crimson, leading Will to raise an eyebrow.

"Shut up. Or I'll tell T.K what I saw in your diary" Yolei whispered back before raising her voice to a normal level. "Uh, Will, this is my friend, Kari"

"An honour Ms. Kamiya." Will bowed to Kari very formally before looking back at his companion; who was still staring at the food left on the table. "Raptoramon, are you going to show our guest some manners?" He got no response and turned back to the other two humans. "Don't mind him, his heart's in the right place. More often than not it can be found in his stomach." He chuckled softly, no one else did. "I know, bad joke. But to more important matters. What brings you two to this neck of the Digital World?"

"What are _we_ doing in the Digital World? What are _you_ doing in the Digital World? _We're_ the Digidestined. _We're_ saving the world from the Digimon Emperor and all other evil things. _You're_ not supposed to be here. You're supposed to be the perfect boyfriend who laughs at my jokes and reads the same books and pays for my meals and is completely normal, not some sort of God-Knows-What here in the Digital World." Yolei seemed a bit puffed after this outburst, which left the others staring at her, Kari in disbelief at her friend's outburst, Will slightly frightened by it. "Wait a minute," Yolei looked at Will suspiciously, "How do you know Kari's last name? And why are you wearing that outfit?"

"How could I live here and not know who she is?" he responded, now sitting down in one of the armchairs scattered across the 'prison', "as for the robe, it's just the uniform here, I personally think it brings out my eyes." Kari looked on in disbelief; was she the only sane one in the entire room?

"Where are we exactly?" she asked.

"You don't know where you are?" Will looked confused "But you came through the portal"

"We were just following you" replied Yolei "we heard you and Izzy talking and decided to follow you"

"Oh. You heard that …" Will slumped a bit in his chair before quickly changing the conversation, "So you're saying that you have no idea where you are?"

"Yes. And who you are, and what you are, and how you know Izzy and Mimi, and how Izzy and Mimi are an item, and why this area isn't controlled by the Emperor, and what you're going to do with us and our friends" Once again Yolei was left a bit breathless by her speech. Will just thought for a few seconds.

"Hmmm, that's a lot of questions. You say there are other Digidestined here? Ha, I told you that you missed part of the message," this part was directed at the dinosaur digimon who was now devouring the rest of the feast, "I'd answer all your questions now, but I think it's best that I get your friends out of prison first. That way I don't have to repeat myself. Won't be a minute." He smiled at Yolei before pulling a mobile phone out of a pocket and moving to the corner of the room.

"Operator, can you connect me to the Warden of the Cells please…He's not there? Well who's in charge then?...Yes just connect me" there was a slight pause "Yes..Yes…Yes I know that there are prisoners down here…Oh they're the first in while are they?…Yes I'm sure that must be incredibly satisfying job, but I'm here to get them released…Yes well the Warden isn't there right now, is he? So why don't you just tell me where you put the prisoners and I can go get them…The paperwork hasn't come through yet? Then just open all the damn cells doors, they're only prisoners her at the moment aren't they" Will's voice was starting to rise. "…Well seeing as you've actually imprisoned the Digidestined, I'd think you'd be wanting to redeem yourselves quickly…Oh you can open the cells? Lovely" he turned off the phone and slipped it back into his pocket. He sat back down and sighed to himself. "Now we wait"

"We wait? Why don't we just go get them?" asked Yolei

"Hmm?" Will had lined up some small cakes from the table in front of him and was obviously having some difficulty deciding on one, "Oh. I don't actually know where they are. But they'll be able to track you down through your digvices I suppose. …1000 Yen says the goggle headed one gets here first" He smiled mischievously and placed the appropriate note on a table. Yolei just stared at him before breaking out in a grin. It seemed to be the same boy she'd met earlier that day. Maybe he wouldn't be so bad after all. At least she wouldn't have to keep her world saving adventures to herself. She looked at Kari and the two nodded, pulling out the same note and placing it on the table.

"You're on. But if we win, you tell us how Mimi and Izzy got together"

"That I'll throw in for free." (Can anyone else say spin-off story?) "Yolei, do want this cream puff?"

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"76 bottles of milk on the wall, 76 bottles of mil.."

"Shut up Veemon, Shut. Up."

"Davis"

"No Veemon, you're not going to tell any more 'Knock Knock' jokes, you're not going to sing any more songs, and if you even think of humming, I will break your spine and…."

"Davis!"

"NO Veemon, I don't want to hear any more of your stories…"

"DAVIS!!!!"

"It was only now that he realised that Veemon hadn't opened his mouth at any stage during his rant. Was he developing telepathy?

"Over here Davis" he now realised that the voice was coming from behind him, and when he turned around he saw Cody and Veemon standing outside the cell, the metal bar door swinging open.

"How long has that door been open?"

"About five minutes." Davis slumped. What an idiot he had been. He was supposed to be the leader of the digidestined yet here he was sitting inside an unlocked cell while T.K was God knows where…wait a second.

"Where'd T.N go?"

"Uh, he went to look for Kari and Yolei" and like that any thoughts of his inadequacy was swept away by a flood of that most primal of instincts. Find Kari. Kill T.K

"DAVIS" cried Cody as he sped off down the stone corridor, leaving behind his Digimon partner and the youngest digidestined sitting outside the cells to contemplate over what they had gotten themselves into.

"75 bottles of milk on the wall…"

"Shut up Veemon"

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Every bloody corridor looked the exact same as the last, but at least Davis' digivice told him that he was catching up on T.K. He ran through the corridors, not noticing the Hagurumon and Gardromon that moved through the seemingly endless labyrinth; but to be fair they paid no attention to the human either. A left turn, second corridor on the right, suddenly that oh so familiar fisherman's hat came into focus up ahead.

"T.K!" T.K heard his name being called behind him and slowed up; partly out of amazement that Davis had got his name right. However Davis just rushed past him, sprinting down the left hand of an upcoming fork in the catacombs of this tower that denied the laws of physics. As Davis moved out of sight and hearing, and all that was left was the echoing of a rant about saving Kari, T.K opted for the other route in the fork, and about fifty metres down the passage he heard it. It was faint, but it was definitely _her_.

"T.K" It was definitely her. Heart beating he began to jog in the direction of the sound, then he heard it again; getting louder now. Now he was sprinting. He narrowly avoided running straight into a Hagurumon as he turned sharply into a final corridor. There was only one door about 50m along and there was no doubt that Kari's voice was emanating from it. Strangely so were cries of "Goggle Head! Come on Goggle Boy!" Then he noticed Davis at the other end of the corridor. It was on.

Davis started first sprinting full pelt towards the door, grinning manically at the thought of saving Kari and for once getting the glory instead of T.K. There was no way that T.K could beat him to the door; he was easily the faster of the two, but then he heard one final shout by Kari, one final call of "T.K!" and his spirits flagged. Why wasn't she calling his name? Why wasn't it "Davis!" she was yelling. In the split second his mind was thrown off by track, his feet found themselves upon uneven ground, slip on a piece of moss and Davis ploughed rather spectacularly into the ground.

T.K pushed the rather menacing prison doors open to find that the inside was very different. Sitting in three clearly expensive armchairs sat an ecstatic Kari and Yolei and a rather dejected looking teenager. However it was the frightening dinosaur that was devouring an entire dessert cart worth of cakes that frightened him most.

"T.K!" cried Kari as she leapt up from the armchair and embraced him, 1000 yen note clenched in her fist.

"Yes, yes, very good. You're all one big happy family again. Whoopdedoo" snapped the stranger as he pulled another note out of his pocket and placed it in a grinning Yolei's outstretched hand.

"Ummm, I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?" T.K was completely bewildered; both by the strange boy who presumably was the one talking with Izzy and by the fact that he was looking at a view that had seconds ago changed from a cityscape to the well trimmed gardens of an English Manor.

"Well I do mean to be rude" grumbled Davis as he staggered into the room; still disorientated from his fall, before punching Will in the gut. Will doubled over in pain, but before Davis could react or Kari and Yolei could reprimand him for beating their new friend, a metal claw rested snugly above his Adam's apple. Davis gulped as he slowly looked up and eyed the very angry Raptoramon.

"It's okay" whispered an obviously winded Will, who was now been tended to by Yolei while Kari and T.K held Davis back from getting himself killed. Raptoramon reluctantly withdrew his claw before once more descending upon the table of food which had suspiciously replenished. It was into this odd scene that Cody, Armadillomon and Veemon wandered into.

"Ummmm, what happened?" Cody looked around as Will pulled himself off the ground with Yolei's help.

"The normal," quipped Kari, "Davis thought he was saving us, but instead nearly concussed our new friend."

"It wasn't because of that" mumbled Davis, "It's because he laughed at me in the park." Silence followed for a few seconds as the others tried to follow the logic behind that statement. It didn't work so well.

"I wasn't laughing at you," admitted Will, "I was just reading a very funny book while on my vacation. That's not a crime, is it?" This reply was even more confusing.

"Right" Kari had had enough of this cryptic conversation. "We're all here now, are you going to answer our questions?"

"Of course" replied Will as he dusted his robes.

"Why did you imprison us?" Cody was always good at asking the right questions, unfortunately it was the still irate Davis who asked this. Will pondered on this for a few seconds, as if picking the right words.

"Because you were trespassing." He stated simply, although he looked rather annoyed at the question.

"But we're the Digidestined, we can go where we want" shouted Davis, "the only person who wants to imprison us is the Digimon Emperor. So tell me straight up or down, whatever your name is, are you working for the Emperor." Will flinched as it looked like Davis was about to punch him again. Instead with the tirade over, will slowly walked over to Davis using the extra inches he had over the Child of Courage to stare down at him.

"You say _I_ work for the Emperor?" he stared daggers into Davis' eyes, for once shutting him up, "while you think that you have free reign over the Digital World. Go where you want? If that's what you really think, then you're no better than the Emperor himself." He nearly spat the last bit, the sheer hatred and ferocity of his words silencing Davis. Then he turned around and smiled at Kari and Yolei. "Told you I could shut him up within five minutes. Pay up." Davis looked on in disbelief as Yolei and Kari pulled out 2000 yen notes and reluctantly placing them in Will's outstretched hand.

"Wait a minute…" Davis was finally cut off as Will turned back to him and placed out his hand.

"Pleasure to meet you Mr. Motomiya" This dumbfounded Davis even more. Will shook his hand and passed him one of the notes. "It was their idea. I really think it wasn't very funny, but they made me do it."

"So where are we?" asked Cody, "and more importantly, why isn't this area under the Emperor's control?" Will once again pondered his words before looking down at his wristwatch which showed that it was almost 4pm.

"You are at the '_Librarius Omnis Gnosis in Pepetuum'_ " answered Will as if it were the obvious answer. "And as for why we remain a free territory…" he stopped for a few seconds and the Digidestined looked at him. T.K was about to ask him what the hell 'Librarius Omnis…" meant. Then the watch reached 4pm. The ground began to shake uncontrollably and the Digimon, Kari and T.K were struck down by a sharp pain; as if knives had been thrust through their frontal lobes. Will looked like he was suffering a mild migraine, but none of the other Digidestined seemed afflicted, and within seconds the shaking was inexplicably gone, as was the pain.

"What was that?" whispered Kari as Davis held her up to stop her from collapsing. It was like a truck had just burst through her mind.

"That," winced Will, "was the reason that we remain outside the Emperor's grasp. It's also going to destroy the Digital World if someone doesn't stop it soon."

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	4. All Aboard!

_Destroy the Digital World_. The words hung in the air for a few too many moments for it to be anything but uncomfortable. For Davis, Yolei and Cody the idea was horrifying; sure Ken wanted to rule the Digital World, but to wish its destruction was another thing entirely, a much, much darker thing. For T.K and Kari the words and their implication were no less horrifying, if anything they were more so. They had seen, at the end of their last adventure, the true, terrible, potential of darkness when they had battled Apocylamon. But at the same time there was hope. If Apocylamon could be defeated then so perhaps could this. But, nonetheless, for those empty moments the words hung there.

Will broke the moment by walking over to a wall and opening a door that definitely hadn't been there before.

'Follow me.' he said, motioning for them to move through the doorway. 'I'll explain everything on the way, I promise. But we should leave' At this Davis broke out of his momentary absence from the world.

'Why? Why should we follow you anywhere without you explaining what is going on? There is some sort of earthquake that happens on schedule, in some sort of Library that has prison cells and where everyone wears robes, and now you're telling us to just follow you God-knows-where. Why do any of this?' He stared daggers at Will, and for the first time Will broke with the terrible taste in jokes that had characterised his speech until then.

'I understand that you're angry, and I promise that will answer all of your questions as soon as we're on our way. But that earthquake shouldn't have happened just then, it should have happened hours from now. All the things that are in motion here are speeding up and you're going to have to trust me.' He looked over to Yolei, 'Please.'

Yolei looked at Will, and then at Davis, and for a moment at no one in particular. What a terrible day this was turning out to be. Sure, there'd been the delightful flirting with a foreigner in the shop, but seeing as he had turned out to be involved in some sort of series of events that was going to destroy the Digital World she wasn't sure if it could be counted as a net gain. She looked at Will again before stepping towards the door with Hawkmon behind her.

'Well I for one would like to get out of this jail cell, as wonderfully apportioned as it.' Her remarks broke the uneasy tension and the others, Davis included, followed her through the door.

The door led out into another passageway, or maybe it was the same passageway they'd been in before, who could tell? Regardless Will led them past a few doors before finally pushing open an unassuming rusted slab of a gate with a picture of a train stencilled onto it. Raptoramon pushed the door open, and as it groaned under his weight finally opened. The transition could not have been more stark.

Where before they had been in a torchlit passageway, the Digidestined now stood on what could have a subway platform in New York City. It was clear that like the door it had not been used in some time for cobwebs, dust, rust and other signs of decay were everywhere. Perhaps once this station had been as bustling as the cavern they had been herded through upon their initial arrival in this place, but it was clear that any glory days had long passed. One thing stood out though; instead of railway tracks the space next to each platform was empty, and instead a single rail hung from the ceiling. And attached to that rail was a carriage not dissimilar to a mountain car. Will rushed over to the carriage and pulled open the grating doors and everyone proceeded to get in. While Will moved over to what looked like an early version of a telephone and spoke to…someone…on the other end of the line, Cody couldn't help but be a little amazed at the sights he was seeing. The Digital World could be a little esoteric and occasionally just plain wacky, but there was something about it all: the robes, the swords, and the old style carriage, which just felt…old. He couldn't place his finger on it.

As Will placed the phone speaker back the carriage began to jolt into life, slowly at first but gathering speed until it was pulling away from the station and into the gloom of a tunnel, with only the internal lighting giving any illumination. Wherever they were going, it was an uphill journey, and soon the Digidestined could feel the wind as the carriage continued to pick up pace. Will sat down with the other Digidestined, opposite Davis.

'Okay, we have some time before we arrive at the department. Ask away.' Davis had clearly prepared a few questions in the past minutes and began to spit them out rapid fire.

'Who are you?'

'I'm Will.'

'No last name?'

'None that I'm aware of.' This took Davis back a bit, but he pressed on regardless.

'And you live here?'

'Most of the time, yes.'

'And here is…'

'The Library.' Will answered as if it was obvious, but he received nothing but confused stares. Kari stopped Davis before his interrogation could continue.

'But what is the Library, Will?' she asked. 'We've been around a lot of the Digital World, and we've seen libraries, but never any mention of this place before.' Now it was Will's turn to look confused.

'You've never heard…but I thought that…okay. Okay. I assumed that you knew where you were, or had at least heard of us. We've been keeping a low profile recently, but I still thought that Izzy would have told you about it, it's where he gets most of his research from…anyway. This place,' he waved his hands out to indicate the space around them, but seeing as they were in a dark tunnel travelling in an iron carriage it wasn't particularly useful, 'is an archive of knowledge. Like a museum.'

'What type of knowledge?' asked T.K.

'All of it. Human and Digimon. History, philosophy, science, art. Everything. The Digimon here are responsible for the researching, archiving, publication and guarding of all the knowledge there has ever been.'

'But how have we never heard of this place?' asked T.K again. 'You said that you'd been keeping a low profile.'

'Well, when I was younger I remember travellers coming here to discover things. But then the Dark Masters came and reconstructed the whole Digital World into Spiral Mountain. I wasn't here then, they sent me away, but when I came back, there were no more travellers. I suppose after all so much death and destruction Digimon just forgot we existed. But I still would have thought the Digidestined would know about.' While Will was explaining the nature of the place the Digidestined had found themselves in, their partner Digimon were conducting a similar interview with Raptoramon.

'So what do you exactly do here?' asked Hawkmon.

'You know, a bit of this, a bit of that. Will and I are historians of the Digital World, so most of the work we do is here in the Library. But sometimes we go across the Digital World or over to the Human World to look for tings.'

'Like Indiana Jones?' Davis had made Veemon watch all three movies last month, and now he was hooked. 'Are there booby traps and giant boulders and Nazis?' Raptoramon looked at him quizzically.

'I…don't know what that is. But there's never been any boulders…There were spikes one time though.'

'That is AWESOME! How do I join?' Before Veemon ask another question, Gatomon, who had been quiet up until now, spoke.

'You can't join; it's something you're born with. A…longing to come and find this place. A calling.' The others looked at her. 'I knew someone, an old friend, who used to say that he used to live in a Library. I thought he actually just lived in library at first, but the way he spoke about it, it was as if it was a part of him, even though it wasn't there. He told me once to go there…here, I guess, but after Apocylamon I thought whatever the place was it was destroyed.'

'Wizardmon?' Raptoramon asked. Gatomon nodded silently. 'I met him once here you know? Just before he left. He was a superstar in his field, he's why Will and I decided to take up history.'

'Speaking of Will,' interrupted Armadillomon, 'where does he fit into all this? What is a human doing in the Digital World?' Raptoramon lowered his voice.

'He doesn't like to talk about it, but just between us Mon he just turned up one day. I was only a Boramon myself, barely out of the Primary Village, but I was bouncing through the woods when…' But before he could reminisce any further the carriage came to a shuddering halt and everyone was thrown forward by its suddenness. Picking himself up, Will pulled open the grating and jumped down into the darkness of the tunnel.

'Not to worry. It's just a fork in the rail, the switch should be out here somewhe…ahhh, there it is. Davis, could you help me with this? It's rusted in place.' Davis had no intention of stepping out into the darkness but at the insistent staring of the other Digidestined he quickly found himself moving carefully through the poorly illuminated tunnel towards Will's voice. Sure enough, a rusted railway switch could just be made out against the gloom. Davis threw all of his weight into pushing it while Will stood on the other side pulling it towards him. The groaning of the switch as it slowly moved towards Will was ungodly and seemed to echo far down the tunnel in all directions.

'Will…' panted Davis, 'just between…us guys…what exactly…are you trying to show us?' He gave up for a moment and two wiped the sweat from their brows, the sound of the switches groaning if anything getting louder.

'It's an artefact that Izzy helped us find.' replied Will, 'Something from before the Digimon Emperor. Now come on.' He started pulling the switch again and Davis had no choice but help too.

'You actually get a kick out of not telling us, don't you?'

'Just a little.' Even in the gloom Davis could sense a smug grin on Will's face.

'Fine, have it your way. I'm sure it can't be that…Yes!' The switch clicked into place and the two boys shared a momentary high-five before bending over to catch their breath. But something wasn't right.

'Davis?'

'Yeah?'

Why is the metal still groaning?' It was true, the echoes of the rusted switch were still travelling, but towards the pair rather than away from them. Will's eyes shot wide open, just as…something…a shadow, because it was darker than the gloom they were standing in, but some sort of creature, flashed across his line of vision and threw Davis to the ground.


End file.
